1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an article inspection system including separate detectors for primary and scattered radiation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Article inspection systems are known in the art wherein the article, such as baggage, to be inspected is moved through a fan-shaped x-ray beam. A line of individual detectors are disposed at an opposite side of the article, so that radiation attenuated by the article is incident on the detectors. The article is moved through the x-ray beam at a defined speed, so that it is scanned strip-by-strip by the detector line. The detector line, which consists of a plurality of individual detector elements, is scanned so that the output signals of the detectors are serially obtained, and are interpreted either in real time, after conversion to digital values, or are written into a memory for constructing a video image.
It is also known that scattered rays arise during the irradiation of the articles. It is known that certain types of material such as, for example, plastics in general, and plastic explosive in particular, being less absorbent to x-radiation, generate relatively high amounts of scattered radiation.